Pet Rat Interaction with Other Pets

Im gonna introduce my rat 'Lemonade' to my snake, maybe they can become friends :-) I wont leave them unsupervised thou...or near eletrical wires...my snake needs cuddles :( BTW - I really wanna have a rat colony.. like..10 male rats and 30 female rats as friends.. This woman is 100% correct, she is a vet, plz respect her, and she does good, she saved her cat from a dumpster and the cat has befriended all her rats so don't be mean please!!!

Im gonna introduce my rat 'Lemonade' to my snake, maybe they can become friends :-) I wont leave them unsupervised thou...or near eletrical wires...my snake needs cuddles :( BTW - I really wanna have a rat colony.. like..10 male rats and 30 female rats as friends.. This woman is 100% correct, she is a vet, plz respect her, and she does good, she saved her cat from a dumpster and the cat has befriended all her rats so don't be mean please!!!

She does caution several times not unsupervised and that they need to grow up together but I do not think as a practice a new rat owner should be looking forward to a pet commune interspecies. Rats do stalk and kill smaller pets (a frog and parakeet posting I recall) and though the traditonal cat/dog might grow up and or adapt to the rat animals are reactive creatures and something may happen where previous friends might do some not so friendly things or rough play to one another. Even with supervision a non animal expert might not see the cues that say intervene and an injury may occur. I do appreciate the videos as a message that rats are great pets but I do not think promoting them as great pets to play with your other pets is a selling point. Consider your audience as you would a client in the animal hospital you worked at that has never owned a pet previosly and has no experience with them at all. To that person you would not advocate mixing species until they are "experts" in the behavior.

She does caution several times not unsupervised and that they need to grow up together but I do not think as a practice a new rat owner should be looking forward to a pet commune interspecies. Rats do stalk and kill smaller pets (a frog and parakeet posting I recall) and though the traditonal cat/dog might grow up and or adapt to the rat animals are reactive creatures and something may happen where previous friends might do some not so friendly things or rough play to one another. Even with supervision a non animal expert might not see the cues that say intervene and an injury may occur. I do appreciate the videos as a message that rats are great pets but I do not think promoting them as great pets to play with your other pets is a selling point. Consider your audience as you would a client in the animal hospital you worked at that has never owned a pet previosly and has no experience with them at all. To that person you would not advocate mixing species until they are "experts" in the behavior.